


Once Upon A Family Dinner

by curiouslycurious



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Swan Queen - Freeform, Swan-Mills Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4193625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/curiouslycurious/pseuds/curiouslycurious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>15 year old Neal Nolan receives an unexpected history lesson, and he's not exactly thrilled with what he learns. A family dinner turns heated quickly, but there's dessert in the end so there's that. Also, Henry and Zelena are actual five year olds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon A Family Dinner

“You named me after _who_?” A fifteen year old Neal stands in front of his parents, hands crossed over his chest, feet planted solidly shoulder-width apart, looking for all the world like his older sister.

 

“Don't speak to your mother that way.” David's reproach is only half-hearted, and everyone in the room recognizes it for the attempt at stalling that it is.

 

Snow pats David's thigh but says nothing in the face of their son's scowl. It's Emma who speaks up instead.

 

“Kid, it's really not a big deal.”

 

Regina and Zelena snort in tandem and Regina receives an elbow to the ribs from Emma, but Zelena ignores her glare. Neal catches the action, and his scowl only deepens.

 

While Neal has grown up in Storybrooke in a decidedly _blissful_ childhood compared to the rest of his family history, the majority of that may be due mostly in part to the fact that said _family history_ is often not brought up.

 

Wicked Witches and Evil Queens and Saviors and Cora are nothing to him but fairytales when he knows them as Aunt Zelena, Regina, Emma, and _Regina's Mom_ . Even if the latter is almost _never_ spoken of by any member of his family. He's aware of their history. He _knows_ the stories. He even lived through a few of them as a baby, so they tell him, but his life has been more focused on the Storybrooke school system (which has grown exponentially in the past decade given Storybrooke's citizens' obsession with procreating) and the dark arcade at the end of Main that his uncle had petitioned Regina to open shortly after Neal's first year of kindergarten. And if Neal spends an inordinate amount of his free time obsessing over Saving The Last Humans from Armageddon on his PS4 ( _I can't believe you still have that thing. It's ANCIENT._

 

 _Shut up, Henry._ Resogun _rules. You suck.)_ then no one complains because obsessing over video games will always win over stealing hearts or casting curses or killing people's mothers.

 

“I'm going by Leo from now on,” Neal says with finality, frown still firmly in place. “Because...solidarity.” He says it with such conviction, catching Emma's eyes so fully that Emma's heart swells momentarily, only so long as it takes it to plummet again at the mention of her grandfather's name.

 

“Neal, uh, that's--” Henry is interrupted when Regina's quick inhale of breath and slight stagger only serve to compliment Emma's suddenly stiff shoulders and the sound of Zelena dropping her head into her palm. Neal's frown falters.

 

This _family dinner_ is going _so well_.

 

“Kid.” Emma's voice is soft, but Neal can hear the underlying stress. “Your name is Neal.” _Not Leopold,_ she finishes in her head, not trusting herself to say his middle name without it coming out as a snarl. She brings her hand up to rest on Regina's lower back as a clear gesture of support that she can tell Neal doesn't fully understand.

 

“No,” Neal says, though this time he's less sure. “I won't be called that anymore. He left you! You went to jail because of him!” His anger and frustration are back as quickly as if neither had faltered to begin with, and Emma is nodding her head before he even finishes.

 

“He did,” she says, and Neal's anger dissipates a touch when she agrees with him. “He did. He left me. I took the fall for him, I went to prison, I gave up Henry. My life kinda sucked.” If she was looking to alleviate the tension in the room, she was failing miserably. “But, Neal, kid, I was still making sucky choices even without his help. Yeah, he was a bastard for abandoning me. He left me because _Pinocchio told him to_. Trust me. I've been angry enough at the man for both of us.” Neal visibly softens a bit at that, and Regina's hand comes up to rest on her back this time, rubbing circles into her sweater. “But he was Henry's father,” Emma says with a quick glance to the side at her son. “And, for what it's worth, I _did_ love him. I probably hated him for a lot longer, but, in the end, he was one of the good guys.”

 

Emma sees the wheels in his head turning over and over with this new perspective, and while he may still be a bit angry for the time being, he's slowly coming around. The tension in the room has lessened slightly, and Regina's hand is now soothing against her bare skin where the woman has slipped it underneath her sweater. Henry has returned to reading his book, and Zelena is reading over his shoulder from her seat on the bar stool beside him.

 

Her parents have remained strangely calm and quiet throughout. Emma supposes that Regina had given them enough of an earful when the name Neal Leopold Nolan had been spoken out loud in a diner full of people fifteen years ago that they've come to terms with the fact that their choices could have been more thoroughly thought through. Needless to say, Neal's sister, Elizabeth Ann, and their little brother, James Elliott, bare no resemblance to any former exes or spouses or dead people in general. The name Daniel had been propositioned to Regina when James had been born, and Snow was lucky to escape the encounter with her life. Emma's never seen a fireball flare quite so large _so quickly_ before or since.

 

The gesture was meant to be a sweet tribute, but Snow's _thoughtfulness_ had only served to open old wounds, per usual.

 

Henry huffs when he turns a page in his book only for the page to be flipped back via magic from Zelena at his side.

 

“Not done.”

 

“Get your own book,” he says, but he doesn't turn the page.

 

Emma rolls her eyes at them.

 

Neal's eyes drop guilty to his parents who are still sitting on the couch. He mumbles a, “sorry, Mom...” under his breath while he kicks the side of the coffee table with his sneaker, and Snow just smiles at him.

 

Emma sees his brow draw together in the next breath, and she instinctively reaches for Regina's hand, knowing what's coming next.

 

“Why can't I go by Leopo--”

 

“Dessert!” Henry shouts from the bar, jolting Zelena at his shoulder, his book toppling onto the counter. “Pie! We have pie. Mom! Cut the pie.”

 

Emma smiles at Neal's confusion but releases Regina's hand as she moves past Henry to the kitchen. She drops a kiss to his head on her way to the refrigerator, and Zelena snatches the book from in front of Henry while he's distracted and flips to the next chapter. Emma ignores the tug-of-war that ensues between her 28 year old son and his grown-ass aunt, instead moving to wrap her arm around her brother's shoulders, squeezing him tight to her side.

 

“Our family's really messed up,” he mumbles, and she laughs.

 

“Tell me about it, kid.”

 

Her little family is all gathered around the kitchen, either sitting on counters or standing, eating warm pie and vanilla ice cream. They laugh at Henry and Zelena's constant bickering, praise Regina's dessert, then gasp in mock-wonder when Regina confesses that _Emma_ actually made the pie, and everything is good. A short while later, her two younger siblings are dropped off by Granny and Ruby who are both dragged inside for pie by the little terrors. Emma smiles in wonder at how far they've all come as Snow dishes out more dessert for the newcomers and Emma's little brother and sister.

 

Regina is hoisting a giggling little James into the air, and 12 year old Elizabeth is standing in between Zelena's legs, leaning her back against Zelena's stomach. Zelena is combing her fingers through the girl's thick mass of blond curls while she tells the woman about her time with Ruby. Her mom and dad are chatting with Ruby, and Granny is discussing something that sounds vaguely like _It's almost 2030 and we_ still _don't have a Black Widow movie. Henry, your generation is disappointing me to the max._

 

Her family is indeed _messed up_. But they're all messed up together, and somehow that feels a lot like _their_ Happy Ending: Fucking Perfect.

 


End file.
